Member Avatar for slickdog

Dell Dementions B110 The unit powers on all fans come on. Note: It was very dusty inside. On the screen the Dell boot up shows up for a second and goes off then comes back on then goes off again. It just keeps doing that. At the Power button there are two lights the one on the left starts orange then goes right to green and stays green. The light on the right will later come on green then go out and then come back on and then out etc.?

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As , , and have pointed toward hardware-level causes, the best next step is a short, ordered diagnostic sequence that narrows the fault without guessing which part to replace. The approach below avoids needless swaps and focuses on measurable checks and easy isolations.

  • Safety first: unplug mains before opening the case and ground yourself to avoid static damage.
  • Try a minimal boot: with power off, remove nonessential drives/cards so only CPU, one RAM stick, and the video output remain. Power up and listen/watch for POST beeps and the front LED pattern.
  • If you have more than one RAM stick, try a single stick in each slot one at a time (this isolates bad DIMMs or slots).
  • Attach or install a system speaker so you can hear BIOS beep codes; record any beep sequence and the exact LED blink cycle for reference.
  • Swap the monitor and cable to rule out the display or cable going in/out of sync with the video signal.
  • Clear CMOS (remove the battery or use the jumper for a minute) and retry — a corrupt BIOS setting can produce intermittent black screens.
  • Visually inspect the motherboard for bulging or leaking capacitors and for burnt components around the CPU/VRM area.
  • If comfortable, use a PSU tester or multimeter to verify stable +12V, +5V, and +3.3V rails before condemning the motherboard.

How to read results: beep/LED codes normally point to a subsystem (memory, video, CPU). If a minimal configuration posts reliably, add components back one at a time to find the culprit. If there are no beeps, visible board damage, or wildly unstable voltages, the motherboard (or its power delivery) is the likely failure and is a reasonable point to move to repair/replace.

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Member Avatar for Suspishio

Could be shorting intermittently through dust on the front switch. Have you thoroughly cleaned the whole thing out properly and then tried?

Looks like a power problem or deribved from a power problem.

Member Avatar for ahihihi...

I think it may be the .PSU.. (overheating and the thermal cut-out its work).. Check the fan(s) in the PSU work OK - if not, clean them with paintbrush.
Best bet is to try another PSU (cheaper and a lot easier to replace than the mobo)

Member Avatar for cguan_77

just suspishio suggested, check out your switch..if it's working fine.. make sure the contact of your switch is good.. and it doesn't toggle to on or off..

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